© AFP Archivbild
Our colleagues from RTL spoke to Minister of Education Claude Meisch about the children who fled from Ukraine and made it safely to the Grand Duchy.
Between 700 and 800 school-aged children have made it to Luxembourg since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. Minister Meisch expects this number to continue growing, which is why the mechanisms to enrol children in Luxembourg's school system have to be put in place. He also stressed the importance of first giving Ukrainians time to settle in the Grand Duchy and process what is happening to their homes.
Minister Meisch further drew attention to the fact that many of the children's experiences and past education vary: "Ukrainians use a different alphabet and a variant of the Cyrillic script. Some of them know English very well, but that depends on their age and where they lived. This means we have to be flexible with the system that we are setting up."
Due to the circumstances, officials are not only looking at Luxembourgish schools, but also at international public institutions: "School programmes in English are advantageous in many cases. We also talked to Ukrainian people who have already lived in Luxembourg for a longer time to find a solution for those who do not speak any other language than their native one."
The politician from the Democratic Party reiterated the importance of giving refugees a transition period to settle in before they have to attend school. Minister Meisch also addressed teachers who will have to take care of war refugees: "It is important to talk to the children and also let them express themselves."
Over the coming days, people who took in Ukrainian refugees will also get additional information on how to help children with their enrolment into the school system.
